World News
Find out what’s happening in Science & Society around the world. Discover changes to science policy and law, new scientific study results, Supreme Court rulings, debates about nature versus nurture, and news about the sharing of genetic information.
Thu, May 29
A Texas Cop Searched License Plate Cameras Nationwide for a Woman Who Got an Abortion
Tue, May 27
Provost Launches AI Initiative and Steering Committee
Duke faculty, students, trainees and staff are engaging with artificial intelligence in a multitude of ways. A new initiative led by Provost Alec D. Gallimore seeks to reflect this diversity of approach, encourage engagement with tools and services, and contribute to a global conversation about the new horizons that AI can open up for us, and how to keep it from exacerbating some of our greatest challenges.
Early last year, Gallimore first envisioned bringing together Duke faculty and academic leadership who are leading work that develops, uses, studies, or otherwise engages with AI. To lead this new initiative, he tapped Yakut Gazi, vice provost for learning innovation and digital education; Michael Pencina, vice dean for data science and chief data scientist at the School of Medicine; and Joseph Salem, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and vice provost for library affairs.
Tue, May 20
Big AI for Small Devices at the Inaugural Athena Summit
Industry, government and academic leaders came together to share the latest developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and edge computing at the inaugural summit of the U.S. National Science Foundation AI Institute for Edge Computing Leveraging Next Generation Networks (Athena).
Hosted by Duke University on May 5-6, this year’s summit centered on expanding industry-university collaborations. Representatives from industries ranging from Silicon Valley to telecommunications to financial management came to participate in panels, learn about the latest in academic research and observe demonstrations.
Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Athena brings together a multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers from 11 universities, led by Duke, who collaborate on research, broadening participation in AI, and education and workforce development for the future.
Mon, May 05
Spotify is Paying Musicians Poverty Wages. Why are Antitrust Laws Protecting Them?
Imagine you’re a vocalist. Since you were a young child you spent countless nights rehearsing to sing your heart out every Sunday for the church choir. You always knew singing was your passion and now you’re finally at an age where you can make your musical dreams come true.
You want to record your first album but to rent the studio for 5 days, you need to come up with $5000. Not only that, but you need to hire an engineer and producer to synthesize everything. Another $5000 setback. You probably need some background musicians. Perhaps just the basics: a guitarist, bass, and drummer. They each charge $500 per day. And don’t forget you need $1000 to mix each song. All in all, you need to find roughly $27,500 to fully produce your album.
Mon, Apr 28
Researchers Secretly Ran a Massive, Unauthorized AI Persuasion Experiment on Reddit Users
A team of researchers who say they are from the University of Zurich ran an “unauthorized,” large-scale experiment in which they secretly deployed AI-powered bots into a popular debate subreddit called r/changemyview in an attempt to research whether AI could be used to change people’s minds about contentious topics.